Victory No. 200 in sight for UTSA coach

UTSA women's head basketball coach Rae Rippetoe encourages her team as they take on McNeese State during their semi-final matchup of the Southland Conference Basketball Tournament at the Merrell Center Thursday, March 10, 2011, in Katy. UTSA fell to McNeese State 66-50.

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Roadrunners coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair implores her team to play harder as UTSA plays Rice at the Convocation Center on December 30, 2011 Tom Reel/Staff MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO SALES; SAN ANTONIO OUT; AP MEMBERS ONLY; MANDATORY
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Lynn Hickey has made countless decisions since joining UTSA as athletic director more than a decade ago. One of her first, and best, was hiring Rae Rippetoe-Blair in 2000 to lead the women's basketball program.

Rippetoe-Blair has amassed 198 victories at UTSA in the 12 seasons since Hickey appointed her fellow Oklahoman, with consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament in 2008 and 2009.

Before she arrived, the Roadrunners had never made it to the Big Dance, and the most successful coach in program history was Bill MacLeay, who won 75 games from 1984-1989. Academic problems were endemic, and they'd had only three winning seasons in the previous 13 campaigns.

“I brought Rae into a very difficult situation,” Hickey said. “The program was in total disarray. We gave her an opportunity, and she turned everything around.”

Now in her late 40s, and hoping to coach for two more decades, Rippetoe-Blair isn't ready to assume she'll retire a Roadrunner.

She's been around long enough to know that all it takes is a couple of bad seasons — the type UTSA, at 6-11 entering Saturday's home game against Texas State, is currently struggling through — to earn an ouster.

But despite opportunities to leave, Rippetoe-Blair said she's never seriously considered it. Not after everything she's achieved at UTSA.

“I love it here, I really do,” she said. “People think the grass is always greener (elsewhere), but I don't believe that. I'm family-oriented. I like to stay in one place and develop relationships.”

That human aspect is what Rippetoe-Blair cherishes most as she looks back on her career at UTSA.

Unleashing Monica Gibbs, arguably the best player in program history, on the Southland Conference was memorable. Even better was watching Gibbs mature off the court, where she's now pursuing a career in coaching.

Rippetoe-Blair was even in the delivery room when former player Nikki Hendrix was unable to make it home to give birth.

“We were her family that day,” she said.

One of Rippetoe-Blair's best relationships might be with her boss.

A former basketball coach herself, Hickey thought nothing of stopping by the locker room at halftime to offer critiques and suggestions during Rippetoe-Blair's earlier years. Rather than view such visits as an invasion, Rippetoe-Blair took them in stride.

“I'd listen and say, ‘You're right,'” she said. “I viewed it more as support.”

Just as Hickey has learned to leave Rippetoe-Blair alone, so has she learned to trust her players. She describes herself as a world-class micromanager during her first stint as a head coach, at tiny Phillips from 1987 to 1992.

“I had players older than I was,” said Rippetoe-Blair, who has 305 career victories in 17 seasons. “I was more hardcore than I am now. I didn't let them get away with anything. Every single thing they did, I knew about.”

Now, Rippetoe-Blair focuses on two things: success on the court and in the classroom. With consistency in both areas for more than a decade, selling UTSA isn't nearly as hard as it was when she first arrived all those years ago.

“That was a problem we had in the past,” Rippetoe-Blair said. “You want them to be proud of where they came from. That's gotten so much easier. I'm proud of that.”